Recreational balls for competitive and fitness activities, for general play activities, and for pet play and training activities are known in the art, and provide endless hours of recreation for users. Typically such balls are designed to produce a predictable and consistent behavior. Some novel balls have been designed to produce less predictable behavior, for example, balls having multiple planar sides, off-center weighting, or the like. Often, balls are suitable for either outdoor use, for example, being of relatively heavy and/or dense construction and/or of harder materials. Other balls are suitable primarily for indoor use, for example, being of very light construction and/or lacking the ruggedness for outdoor play.
It is often desirable to provide a ball that is suitable for both indoor play and for outdoor play. For example, a ball suitable for indoor play is typically relatively soft, lightweight, and compliant. A ball suitable for outdoor play will typically have enough mass to withstand at least light breezes, and have a relatively rugged outer surface.
For some gaming activities, it is desirable to provide a ball that exhibits erratic or unpredictable behaviors. For example, it may be desirable to introduce chance into a game, or to develop and test a user's reflexes and reaction times. Similarly, it may be desirable to introduce erratic behavior when playing and/or training pets, both to keep the pet's attention and enjoyment of the game, and to keep the pet's reflexes sharp.
Typically prior art balls are designed either to be tossed or kicked. For balls intended for play with a pet, the ball may be designed to allow the pet to carry the ball in its mouth, usually by providing a sufficiently small diameter. To provide for a large variety of play modes, it would be beneficial to design a ball that can be kicked and that allows the user and/or pets to grasp the ball, preferably with a variety of grasping features. In prior art balls, to be graspable they are typically either designed with a diameter smaller than a typical span of a hand, or are provided with extensions such as handles, ropes, or posts that the user can grasp. Such extensions, however, may undesirably interfere with the ability of the ball to roll. It would be an advantage to provide a generally spherical ball that is larger than a user's hand span, but can still be grasped for throwing and the like.
For pet play and/or training, it is also desirable to provide a ball having a size, mass, softness, and rolling performance that appeal to the interests and instincts of herding animals so as to maximize the exercise and training value of the ball when used with herding animals. For example, a ball having a maximum transverse dimension (or diameter, for a sphere) of under eight inches is desirable. This size would generally allow two balls per 12″ merchandising peg as well as optimal pack-out on 40″×48″ pallets. Also a ball having a durable exterior and a compliant interior results in a more animal-like feel (in terms of biteability) than other configurations and constructions. For training, it would be beneficial to provide a ball that allows for the application of consumable animal training aids (e.g., peanut butter, scent materials).
For all applications, it is often desirable to provide a ball that is significantly larger than a standard tennis or fetch ball, and that is suitable for kicking, catching, lofting and dribbling.